No manslaughter charges against officers in UPS shootout in Miramar, judge rules
A Broward County judge on Monday ruled that three Miami-Dade police officers involved in a December 2019 shootout that left a UPS driver and a bystander dead on Miramar Parkway cannot be prosecuted for manslaughter under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
Officers Rodolfo Mirabal, Richard Santiesteban and Leslie Lee had been charged in the deaths of UPS driver Frank Ordonez, 27, of Miami, and motorist Richard Cutshaw, 70, of Pembroke Pines.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office says it will appeal the decision.
The two men were killed during a gunfight at the busy intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road after police pursued armed jewelry store robbers fleeing from Coral Gables. The robbers kidnapped Ordonez and forced him into a high-speed, afternoon rush-hour chase in his truck to Miramar.
Both suspects were also killed.
In his ruling on March 23, Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra found that the officers were justified in using deadly force.
With four people dead, the incident became one of the deadliest days in Miramar, as the city turned into the violent endpoint of one of South Florida’s most-disturbing televised police chases.
The judge said body camera footage supported witness accounts that the suspects threatened anyone who approached the hijacked UPS truck.
The judge concluded that the officers acted in what they believed was a necessary effort to protect lives and that prosecutors failed to prove otherwise.
Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute allows individuals — including law enforcement officers — to avoid prosecution if they can demonstrate they reasonably feared imminent death or great bodily harm and acted in self-defense.
Previously, one of the four indicted officers, Jose Mateo, had convinced a judge to grant him immunity on the same grounds. But Broward County prosecutors continued to argue that Stand Your Ground protections should not apply when innocent bystanders are killed and said the officers’ actions created unnecessary and deadly risk.
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More than 200 rounds were fired by officers from several departments. Ordonez was fatally shot as he attempted to escape from the cab of the truck.
Cutshaw, who was sitting in his car nearby, was also killed. Both robbery suspects died at the scene.
The incident drew national attention and sparked widespread criticism over police tactics, particularly the decision to engage in a shootout with civilians trapped in traffic.
In 2021, Broward prosecutors charged the four Miami-Dade police officers with manslaughter, alleging their actions were reckless and contributed to the deaths of Ordonez and Cutshaw.
Ordonez’s family has been outspoken about holding someone accountable for his death.
This story was originally published March 24, 2026 at 8:23 AM with the headline "No manslaughter charges against officers in UPS shootout in Miramar, judge rules."
